Friday, 23 November 2012

There's mixed news from Camp SUL. The good news is that our friend has found a way of persuading me that, after 2,500 miles of successful motoring this year, now is the time for Winter hibernation. The bad news is that we may now have a major job to add to the list...

(Is it me or does the smile get bigger when trouble has been caused?)

Sunday's trip to help out with the second weekend of heritage train and bus services in Looe didn't go so well. A gentle whine, which has nagged my conscience since Warminster last month, developed into something less subtle on the jouney down to Cornwall, and culminated in some 'oribble grating sounds coming from the gearbox (nothing new there, I hear you quip, as I sob into my whi... I mean, wine).

We made it to the event but didn't take part, Penzance-style. 'The nasty noise' became more frequent, even on tickover, and was about as painful a noise as an owner could wish for his vehicle to make.

There's almost certainly a bearing breaking up in there. The knackered bearing would explain the whine, and 'the nasty noise' could be bits of the bearing being churned around the gearbox. Not nice.

So we limped home in fourth gear (which doesn't turn the lay-shaft in the gearbox, and therefore doesn't whine at all), and 'the nasty noise' soon disappeared - presumably the alien intruder had long since broken up.

On Sunday I'll drain the gearbox, and I'll show you what comes out. It's probably going to mean having the gearbox out over the Winter, and I already had plenty of jobs to do. But I can't really complain. We got home.

Sheppardian philosophy says: In every bag of sweets there are the horrible yellow ones that taste so disgusting you can barely swallow them. But if we do, they make the lovely red ones taste even more delicious when you get them. Yesterday, after months of charmed chewing, I picked a yellow one.

Monday, 12 November 2012

Now the rally season is done, I've been busily preparing a blog post on Winter hibernation.

It tells you all about the work I plan to carry out while 270 KTA enjoys a well deserved rest from motoring over the Winter months. Hub studs, the gear linkage, that horrible crack in the windscreen... BUT...

I can't post that yet, because our friend refuses to hibernate.

This weekend saw a special visit of the Great Western (Railway) Society's newly restored steam rail motor to the Liskeard-Looe branch line in Cornwall, and on the request of First GreatWestern, TVaGWOT ran a free heritage bus service for the punters to enjoy once they'd ridden on the train. Pish to hibernation...

Main traction for the day was to be Colin Billington's Bristol H, which would have conceivably met Churchwood rail motors like this at stations in the 1930s/40s, and extra capacity was to be provided by our friend - the comparitive youngster of the day - as and when required.

As it turned out, interest in the buses was such that 270 KTA ran (and with good loadings) on all but one of the runs. A bonus for some, and "the highlight of the day" for others, including a woman from Lowestoft who practically welded her finger to the name of the town when she saw it on 270 KTA's builder's plate. "I was built here too...."

The route from Liskeard to Looe, via St Keyne and Duloe (Western National's Service 69), was quite a sod to drive. With hairpin bends preceeding unannounced hills and narrow bridges, not to mention stretches of road lined with photographers waiting to photograph the buses and steam motor side by side, it's a wonder we managed to beat the train each time. Western National allowed 45 minutes in the 1930s, we just about did it in 35.

Chasing a steam train through the Looe valley in a Bristol SU was a magical experience, and one I won't forget. It was like we were in The Titfield Thunderbolt.

(Wonderful photos of the Steam Motor and tiny 270 KTA from across the water come courtesy of Peter Murnaghan, who underestimated how much I'd enjoy them!)

Shame you missed it, really. But don't worry...

We'll be doing it all again next Sunday!

So, if you regularly read this blog but haven't yet met 270 KTA, we insist that you join us for a ride. This really will be your last chance before hibernation in 2012...

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This blog is an ongoing chronicle of the adventures I share with my preserved 1962 Bristol SUL4A coach.

Here you'll find tales aplenty of the joy and strife associated with keeping alive a 55 year old vehicle.

Our adventures have been many and varied over the past seven years. The blog’s archive contains rich and colourful stories of success and failure that have typified life with 270 KTA so far; stories of man and machine in perfect harmony, briefly but sometimes brutally interrupted by the odd discordant note.

This blog now has a 'brother' in BDV252C.co.uk, which follows the long-term restoration of my 1965 Bristol SUL bus. To balance the tales of woe and elation in each story, I recommend you follow the two blogs in equal measure!

David Sheppard, 2018

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About 270 KTA

270 KTA (420) is a 1962 Bristol SUL4A coach, one of 36 such coaches built for Western National and Southern National for use in the West of England. They were predominantly for local tours but also provided relief on express services to London and the North during busy periods.

Bristol's SU-type was a narrow, lightweight chassis designed specifically for use in rural areas. As well as the South West, SU coaches found their way to Wales, with bus-bodied counterparts in Yorkshire, the Isle of Wight and parts of the Home Counties.

420 has a 33-seat body built by Eastern Coachworks of Lowestoft and a 4-cylinder Albion EN250H diesel engine, mounted horizontally underfloor and coupled to a David Brown 5-speed gearbox.

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A BRIEF HISTORY

420 worked from Western National's Kingsbridge depot when new, where it was to be pride of the fleet for six years. With the decline in local coach tours it moved to Taunton where, along with most other SU coaches, alterations were made to enable use on local bus routes.

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Moving to Trowbridge depot in 1968, it was something of a oddity in Wiltshire and as such was very well photographed during its stay. When the Trowbridge operation was transferred away from Western National, 420 was returned to Taunton, narrowly missing transfer to the Bristol Omnibus fleet. (Or did it?)

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420 was renumbered 1220 in June 1971 and, following a spell at Bridgwater depot, was transferred to the Devon General fleet. Accordingly, it received poppy red and white livery - the only SUL coach to be so treated. It was also the only one of its batch to be fully downgraded to bus configuration, with the removal of headrests and the addition of extra seats.

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Withdrawn from Weymouth depot (still red), '1220' later worked as a school bus in Sussex, before returning to the West to join the fleet of Willis, Bodmin. It was donated to the Western National Preservation Group in 1995, and remained with them for several years, although its poor mechanical state meant it was little used.

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Purchased by me in December 2009, it was returned to the road in 2011 after major mechanical attention. A rolling programme of restoration has continued while allowing 420 to be used at events and enjoyed by others. By fluke or fate, it now lives just a few miles away from its original home in Kingsbridge and is part of a family fleet of five preserved Bristol vehicles.

270 KTA's Owner and Scribe

David Sheppard lives in the South West of England. He has been involved in bus and coach preservation for more than 25 years, having helped his father to restore their first bus at the age of seven.

David is a trustee and director of the Thames Valley & Great Western Omnibus Trust and a director of NARTM, the National Association of Road Transport Museums, which represents the heritage transport movement to Government departments and agencies, regulators and funding bodies.

A broadcaster by trade, he hosts his own regional show on BBC radio stations across the south‐western quarter of the UK and Channel Islands.